


Erase the Damage

by deliciousshame



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-03-14
Packaged: 2018-03-17 20:46:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3543233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliciousshame/pseuds/deliciousshame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tetsuya presented as an omega. It didn't change a thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Erase the Damage

When, near the beginning of the summer of their final year at Teikou, Murasakibara also presented as an alpha, making the Generation of Miracles an all-alpha team, their opponents thought that would mark the end of their reign. That many strong-willed alphas in such a close unit, without any betas or omegas to mitigate, were bound to self-destruct, torn apart by opposing urges to dominate.

The first to dare raise the subject with the team was met with rolling eyes and shrugs. Like anyone would be stupid enough to challenge Akashi. They all remember how well that worked for Murasakibara, and either way none of them cared enough to try.

Tetsuya doesn't let it bother him. Their team is strong. It's held by the need to win, so overwhelming it'll never be pushed aside by such trifles.

He's just happy he presented on a Sunday. A quick trip to the doctor and Tetsuya was on suppressants, free to continue his unremarkable existence. His omega scent would just have attracted attention he didn’t need and hurt his misdirection. Better no one knows.

\-------------------

Seirin is confusing at first. Not as stratified as the gigantic Teikou basketball club, with only Kagami-kun and the coach as alphas. It feels different not to have to navigate around all those larger than life presences.

Not that Seirin’s members are any less strange and difficult in their own way, but Tetsuya is self-aware enough to know he can also be strange and difficult. He’ll manage. 

\-------------------

Spring break is upon them once again. For most students, it's just a week off school before the beginning of another high school year. For omegas, it's time for heat again. Tetsuya is on suppressants, he could just skip it, but the delayed heat he’d have to go through later might just be worst, and his doctor doesn’t recommend it. 

The club at Teikou had been too big for them to hold mandatory practice. Too many omegas missing, too many alphas "needed elsewhere". They decided they could afford to let their students free for a week, a rare concession. 

Seirin is much smaller. Officially its only member incapacitated is Tsuchida-senpai, and so the coach doesn't see why she shouldn't hold her training from hell like usual. That's a problem for Tetsuya. He'll have to let her know he can't make it. She’s demanding but he’s sure she’ll understand that much. 

Tetsuya didn’t expect her first worry to be about why he’d keep the fact hidden. Many players prefer taking suppressants to be treated just like another beta. It’s not exactly a rare choice. 

She seems to think he’s missing the point, but she respects his choice and accepts his excuses, though not without promises he’ll compensate with extra practice later. He leaves, but doesn’t miss the coach berating herself for her failure to notice such a primordial fact. 

\-------------------

"How did practice go, Kagami-kun?"

The question is futile. Kagami-kun is an exhausted mess lying on his desk. Kuroko doesn't feel slightly vindicated by this. Not at all. It doesn't matter that he spent his week alone and unhappy, fighting off the heat that demanded more than toys and fingers, and that he's still sore like he was training twice as hard as his teammates.

Tsuchida-senpai surely is the luckiest of them all. He didn’t go to practice and got to stay with his girlfriend. Tetsuya isn’t going to pass at him anymore. 

\-------------------

Tetsuya glares at the coach again, who replies with her sunniest smile. (Technically she's not their coach anymore, or even a student at their school, but she cheerfully ignores those facts. The real coach, hired with the much increased club funds now that they're a national-level basketball team, doesn't seem to have a problem with this.)

It’s only been a few days since his last heat, his second and last as a Seirin student, and he's still feeling the effects. He's not exactly at his peak, and yet, here he is, about to play a practice match against Shutoku. The coach really should focus on her college studies and stop “making sure that since they are her legacy, they don’t end up shaming her.”

He's not the only one suffering. Takao-kun is making a great deal of noise complaining at an increasingly annoyed Midorima-kun. Takao-kun is always a difficult opponent for Tetsuya, but under those conditions it’ll be even worse.

The game starts as usual, distracting Tetsuya from lingering pains, until reaching the ball requires he moves just the wrong way, making him wince. If it was anybody else marking him, it would probably pass unremarked, but the hawk eye sees all, and Takao-kun knows very well how wrecked heat can leave someone. 

"Wait, YOU're an omega!?" His exclamation has attracted the attention of every player on the court. There is nothing to do but answer: "Yes, what of it?"

"I can't believe it! Shin-chan, why didn't you tell me?"

Midorima-kun can’t quite seem to find the word. Tetsuya might have been amused by this if they weren’t in the middle of a match and Shutoku wasn’t leading by 12 points. 

The referee is now gesturing furiously for them to restart the match. Tetsuya sighs. It is only a matter of time before the news spread amongst his former teammates.

\-------------------

He gets his first response when he carelessly answers his phone, only to lose fifty percent of his hearing capacity in a moment: "KUROKOCCHI! YOU'RE TERRIBLE TO HIDE THIS FROM ME! IF I’D KNOWN SOONER-"

Tetsuya hangs up and resolves to never speak to Kise-kun again. Kise-kun just starting furiously texting a somewhat incoherent story about wasted youth and lost opportunities. Tetsuya stops reading at the point where Kise-kun starts insinuating things Tetsuya doesn’t want anything to do with.

Tetsuya just revels in the fact that Murasakibara-kun won’t care, Midorima-kun will just try to block the memory and Akashi-kun will take note but not do anything about it until the knowledge becomes convenient. It will hopefully never happen. 

Aomine-kun, though, is a mystery. 

\-------------------

The one phone call he half-dreaded, half-hoped for doesn’t come. He stares at the screen of his phone absently while walking back home. He has no news of Aomine-kun. 

The temptation to end the wait by calling him makes itself known, but he doesn’t do it. It would indicate interest, and Tetsuya wants to appear neutral. 

It's not like he'd never thought about it. Aomine-kun had been his light on the court and out of it, but he'd chosen basketball and never regretted it, and so Aomine-kun was his teammate, not his alpha. Still, the thought remains, what ifs always around. The worst of all those possibilities: could he have saved Aomine-kun from himself if only they’d been closer? Would he have understood, would his words have reached where in reality they fell short? 

But it didn’t happen. It’s still not happening, and it probably never will. This is their third year of high school. Out of all of them, all of the players of their generation, Aomine-kun is the one with the best chance to go pro in America, but if that is what he wants he has to go, and it will be soon. 

It is, of course, at this moment that Aomine-kun makes himself known, the “Hey, Tetsu” startling him out of his thoughts. It feels strange to be the one who didn’t notice, especially since missing Aomine-kun, who makes every space he enters his own by simply being there, seems impossible. 

“Hello, Aomine-kun.”

This is awkward. Tetsuya knew it would be. If it isn’t about basket between them, they don’t seem to know how to deal with it safely. But stalling has never been Aomine-kun’s way. 

“You know, I used to wonder how I‘d keep you, Midorima and Murasakibara from killing each other when you presented as an alpha. You’re way too stubborn for an omega, it never even crossed my mind.”

Tetsuya doesn’t deem that statement worthy of an answer. Like Sakurai-senpai and Takao-kun aren’t just as stubborn in their own way, only to name a few. 

“You must have wondered about it too, right? Everyone does.”

“Not really. I just wanted to play basket.” It hadn’t been relevant to his promise with Ogiwara-kun. He hadn’t wondered about what he’d become or how it would affect his game. 

Aomine-kun laughs. “How like you. Nothing but basket in your mind.” The levity is short-lived. “Still, why did you not say anything to- us?”

So many reasons. He hadn’t wanted others to think he used his nature to get into the team, both for himself and for them. He hadn’t wanted to risk losing their respect. He had wanted things to stay the same, like they were at the beginning, when they were still a team and not merely on the same court. “The scent would have made me more noticeable.” It’s true, but…

The answer annoys Aomine-kun. “That explains why you were on suppressants, not why you didn’t say.”

That’s… “It didn’t matter.”

“Bullshit.”

“No, it didn’t. I didn’t want it to matter to anyone, so I made sure it wouldn’t.” It’s not perfect, doesn’t really cover how much he’d worried about what to do, if not telling would be a betrayal of the trust that had disappeared in the end anyway, but it isn’t false either. He really felt that it hadn’t been relevant. 

“Well, fine. It was your choice, I guess.” 

Something is wrong. Aomine-kun is closing off and Tetsuya doesn’t know why. “Aomine-kun, what’s wrong?”

Aomine sighs, lowers his eyes. “Nothing. Everything’s fine, Tetsu.”

Tetsuya has let Aomine-kun go when he shouldn’t have more than enough for his lifetime. Not again. He grabs his arm and faces him. Aomine-kun could shake him off easily, but Tetsuya knows he won’t. “Aomine-kun, what is it?” 

“Well, it’s just another fucking clue I missed along the way.”

It’s not Aomine-kun’s fault he didn’t notice. Being inconspicuous is what he excels at. “I didn’t want you to know.”

“I guess I thought I knew you better than that. Things might have gone differently if I’d found out.”

Surely that’s something they don’t need to revisit together. “Aomine-kun had other things in mind back then. Even so, it might have, it might not.” 

Aomine-kun is… fidgeting. Tetsuya is starting to worry. “Sorry if I’m not that sure about it. Look, I keep wondering, and I can’t be the only one that… Fuck everything.”

Aomine-kun’s movements are always unpredictable, even for him and despite all their history, but he’s never been as taken by surprise as then, when Aomine-kun pulls him toward him into a kiss that isn’t anything like he imagined, no finesse, only Aomine-kun overpowering his senses for a few short seconds, not enough, too long, like he always does and yet nothing like he’s used to. 

He stumbles back when Aomine-kun pushes him away with as much strength as he pulled him in, which should be familiar. “Fuck. I didn’t mean, I just wanted… Fuck.”

“It’s fine” comes out without his consent, as does the hand that reaches for Aomine-kun’s to stop him from leaving, again. They both stare at it, bewildered. This isn’t their usual fist bump at all, and yet Tetsuya can’t seem to untangle his fingers from Aomine-kun’s, nor does Aomine-kun himself. 

The first thing that escapes to fill the deafening silence: “This is a bad idea. Aomine-kun, aren’t you leaving for America?”

Aomine-kun’s fingers tighten around his. “Maybe, I don’t know. My English still sucks. We’ll see. It’s not like it matters right now.” Tetsuya knows that look, that rare smile starting to show at the corner of Aomine-kun’s lips. Like he could say anything that might seriously wipe it out. 

“Maybe Kagami-kun could teach you. He lived there for years after all.” His grades are terrible, but Aomine-kun doesn’t have to know that.

“Fuck no. Anyway, don’t talk about that idiot now of all time.” Aomine-kun closes upon him, lies a little against his side, unsure but becoming more certain with each second of Tetsuya allowing the contact, even resting into it gently. “Satsuki will think of something.”

Tetsuya frowns. “You really shouldn’t burden Momoi-san with your problems all the time.”

“I can think of one problem she’s never going to hear about.” The tone doesn’t leave any doubt about what Aomine-kun is referring to. Tetsuya flushes, causing Aomine-kun’s eyes to darken slightly, and nothing about any of this is proper or planned, but it’s perfect, all he ever wanted without ever daring to reach for. He’ll take it all, embarrassment and fights and the uncertain future lurking ahead included.

So he doesn’t protest when Aomine-kun starts dragging him toward who knows where, knowing it can only lead to something good.


End file.
